Better World Books Stance on Google Books Settlement

Posted by Jack on 11.18.2008 at 12:00 pm

The long awaited settlement for the Author’s Guild, AAP and Google is official.  Under the settlement, “Google will have the right to make browsable copies of the books it has scanned through its Library Project as well as books scanned in through its regular Book Search program.”

From Publisher’s Weekly:

As part of the $125 million settlement, Google will pay $45 million to settle the class action lawsuit brought by the Authors Guild. Authors whose books have already been scanned will receive at least $60 per work. Another $34.5 million will go toward the creation of a Book Rights Registry that will be responsible for building a database of rightsholders information and for disbursing all money generated through the use of books in Google Products and Services. (The remaining $45.5 million will go to legal and attorney fees). Under the deal, Google will receive 37% of revenue and rightsholders 63%. Publishers and authors will have 120 days to opt out of the settlement once the agreement receives approval from the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, something that is expected to take several months.

How does this affect us? Well, Read more…

1 Comment » | Tagged Author News, google, our stance, publishing

Indie Booksellers, Amazon and a Book about Obama

Posted by admin on 09.05.2008 at 12:37 pm

Indie booksellers are in a rage after the title “Obama’s Challenge” was released exclusively at Amazon before anyone else could get their hands on it.  Some were more outspoken than others attacking publisher Chelsea Green with reasonable ire, but others took it to a whole other level.  B&N actually canceled their 10,000 copy order [that's going to hurt the sales team at CG] in protest, basically boycotting what will be a successful book as punishment for CG’s backhanded dealings.

This won’t affect us TOO much so the vitriol is dialed down, but this kind of exclusivity, should it become more commonplace, won’t exactly make booksellers love Chelsea Green.  For that matter, with B&N leading the way, it would be surprising if other booksellers didn’t take the hint and get on board for next time.

The reason this is such a problem is that this book is poised to make some noise in the book market.  This summer, two of the 5 bestsellers in this area (hardcover non-fiction) have been Obama bashing books, namely, current #1 seller Obama Nation and current #6 The Case Against Barack Obama.  With the wild popularity of this polarizing figure, the time for a well-written positive book to come out is now, where sales will be massive in counter to these bashing books sales.  The lucrative nature of this means that Amazon paid a premium for this exclusivity and that it hurts local and indie stores even more on a guaranteed success.

Have your say » | Tagged Book Reviews, amazon, books, obama, publishing